The growth of electronic commerce has enabled consumers to conduct a large percentage of their shopping online, resulting in a large volume of packages being delivered to homes and businesses. In addition, online shopping is just one of many activities that are causing expansions within the delivery industry, and shipments are often associated with considerable amounts of data, including the identification of the sender, the recipient, the courier (which may be the same entity as the sender), the package contents, and the times of both collection and delivery of the package.
Often, however, packages are collected and delivered when the sender and recipient, respectively, are not present. This presents a particular challenge for packages that require special handling, which can be costly for all constituents in the supply chain. Food or other perishable items, for example, may spoil if left exposed to outside temperatures or if collection is delayed due to the inability of the courier to access the package. Risks are also added when the contents of the package are more expensive. In addition, packages left for delivery or pickup on a doorstep or other location outside of a residence are vulnerable to theft and other risks, such as damage from weather. Redelivery is also a significant problem for couriers and can provide convenience issues for the customer. Accordingly, high value packages may require special handling for security or require insurance against loss or theft. As an example, a sender of a package may require a signature of the recipient before delivery is permitted. The signature requirement may complicate shipment logistics and also may add a delay to the delivery process when the recipient is unavailable to receive the shipment from the courier, which can often result in multiple redelivery attempts and involving additional costs.
For these and other reasons, current package collection and delivery methods are inconvenient despite the amount of information available to predict collection and delivery times. Projected collection and delivery times provided by couriers are often mere estimates and do not alleviate the inability to be physically present for the collections and deliveries. As such, a solution is needed for the collection and delivery of packages to occur safely, securely and with certainty without anyone being present at the property.